Burry Holms

29^th October

Yesterday we hadn’t enough time between tides to take in the 2 islands either side of the Bay. Low tide was about an hour later today so we decided to walk to the tidal iron lighthouse before visiting Burry Holms. We could park in the village, Llanmadoc in a designated field (near the church) where there is an honesty box for the required £1.

We walked back down through the village, the opposite way from the Britannia Inn, until a junction when we went right between a holiday house and Cym Ivy café and crafts. The map is marked Cwm Ivy and just down from here we took a path on the right towards the National Trust Bunkhouse. A path down to the beach was closed. We walked under pines passing several dog walkers. On the right of the path was a bird hide overlooking the salt marsh. We learnt from another walker that this was only recently transformed from farmland by a breach in the sea wall. This had been used as farmland since the 17^th century but the walls are Medieval. The wood of the hide smelt new but unfortunately graffiti covered the shelves and paper designated for people to record wild life spotted here. Most people think it is the children who stay in the bunkhouse just a little way down the track. Another bird hide on the salt marsh opposite perhaps fared better. A pure white egret was the only bird we could easily spot without binoculars.

We were walking towards Whiteford Burrows with Berges Island in front of us. Bob thought the lighthouse to be at least another mile further than the island that is not an island but woodland. It was taking longer than we planned and we didn’t want to miss the window for crossing to Burry Holms. I wanted to see the only cast iron lighthouse in Europe but it was hidden either behind dunes or the trees. We had to retrace our steps back to the car park as our original planned route was longer. The walk had been lovely and I hated the time restrictions!

We drove several miles to Broughton Caravan Park and the visitor’s car park at the site entrance. From here we took a footpath at the left of the car park which eventually took us through the sand dunes and out onto the beach. It was quite a maze and not always clearly marked. We enjoyed the toadstools and furry caterpillars that played dead on the sandy path. Maybe they ate sea holly, for skeletons of the leaves were strewn about. We watched a red kite with its distinctive forked tail. We didn’t know they were this far from Pembrokeshire. It was a clamber up the dune to the top where we could see the beach below. Several people have had fires here with shells in the residual charcoal. We wish people wouldn’t dump their rubbish in beautiful places but at least it wasn’t spread about all over. Perhaps they were coming back for it!!!

 

 

 

The stones on the beach were lovely pastel shades of pink, blue, grey, green, and colours in between. We spent a while handling the smooth rounded pebbles and walking about a deeply embedded shipwreck where you could see most of the outline of the ship by the wooden parts left showing through the sand. Surfers were trying to surf on the feeble swell today. We think it is usually very good here judging by the numbers of surf boards we have seen.

 

Burry Holms is less than 100 yards from the shore. It was once an inland hill overlooking a large plain. It is a gentle mound in shape and much smaller than its counterpart at the other end of Llangennith beach. There was a bit of rock scrambling and it wasn’t very clear of the best route for climbing up on to the island. You could see the sign warning people to watch for the tides, but, to head for that looked too difficult. A narrow path had been made by some walkers and we followed that up to the top of the mound. It was grassy and still had some wild flowers even in late October. We didn’t see much sign of the ancient history attached to this place which dates to Mesolithic times. Flints have been found here from the Iron Age and remains of a hill fort can be discerned but we must have missed them.

At the seaward end, what could have been the concrete base for a gun or even a small cannon, made a round landmark. We needed to take care as the path was quite narrow in places and the sands with rough rocks around the island’s base would have made a nasty end in case of a fall.

We liked the island but it didn’t take long to walk it. The journey here was as much part of it and recommended. It looks like many people walk the cliff from Rhossili instead of the Caravan Park route but however you do it I am sure you get the feel that Burry Holms is quite remote.